Norfolk Island Coast Australia

Rising out of the vast Pacific Ocean like an apparition

is Norfolk Island.

I'm standing on a green jewel in the blue ocean.

But as well as beauty Norfolk Island has a dark side.

There are sheer cliffs, treacherous reefs and a pounding sea,

all of which makes it very hard to land here.

But despite the lack of a safe harbour

today around 1,600 people make their home here,

all of 1,500 kilometres from the eastern seaboard of Australia.

'Joining me on this journey,

'Professor Tim Flannery tracks down one of the world's rarest birds...'

This is so exciting,

because there's only ten of these nests on the whole planet.

'..Professor Emma Johnston uncovers a World War II mystery

'fated to reveal the secrets of the universe...'

So in a sense this was the birth of radio astronomy.

It was the birth of radio astronomy.

'..and I go looking for a fish said to cause LSD-like visions.'

-And if we get one will you eat it as well?

-No.

-Simple as that!

-Simple as that!

This is Coast Australia.

Beginning at Duncombe Bay, we're exploring Norfolk Island

and across to nearby Phillip Island.

In October 1774,

Captain James Cook was on his second voyage in the southern hemisphere.

He was aboard HMS Resolution out there

when some of his crew spotted this island.

Cook named it Norfolk Island.

They landed here at Duncombe Bay.

That evening, Cook wrote in his log the following.

"We found it uninhabited.

"We observed many trees and plants common at New Zealand.

"But the chief produce is a sort of spruce pine

"which grows in great abundance and to a large size."

The Norfolk pines were of great interest to Arthur Phillip.

As governor of the first settlement at Sydney,

he saw Norfolk Island as a naval base and commercial hub, supplying

the British fleet with masts and the colony with flax for cloth.

But the Norfolk pine proved to be useless for masts.

You can see in this section through a tree trunk these knots,

which create fault lines that make the wood brittle.

And if you put it under any kind of stress, it snaps like a carrot.

And along with its isolation the island's treacherous coast

made it too expensive to maintain as a sustainable base.

So after 25-odd years of trying to establish a colony here

every building was destroyed, every farm animal was shot,

the last souls living here departed for elsewhere

and Norfolk Island was abandoned.

In New South Wales, the first settlement was flourishing, bringing

rising crime that led for calls for more dire forms of punishment.

Once again, Norfolk Island became

the focus for authoritarian attention.

Given its isolation, and the impossibility of escape,

the British government decided that Norfolk Island was

the perfect place to send its very worst felons,

forever to be excluded from all hope of return.

The year was 1825 and this new convict colony was

known as the Second Settlement.

Deliberately designed as a hell on earth, in the 30 years it operated

its name would strike terror into the hearts of would-be offenders.

I'm here to meet London-based historian Tim Causer,

who's spent years researching the Norfolk Island penal settlement.

-Hi, Tim.

-Hi, Neil, how are you?

-I'm good, yeah.

How bad was this place, this island?

Erm, Norfolk Island was probably the most notorious penal settlement

in the English-speaking world, after perhaps Macquarie Harbour.

So it's all about instilling a fear that, if you don't behave and you

don't toe the line, we won't kill you but we'll send you to a place...

-Yes.

-..arguably worse than death.

-Yes, you wouldn't want to come here.

'For most of its bleak history, backbreaking labour was

'the method of supposed rehabilitation.

'6,500 prisoners suffered here, some enduring deliberate

'and unspeakable cruelty.'

Labour here at Norfolk Island was sunrise to sunset,

designed to be deliberately punitive.

There were no animals allowed for the agricultural work,

all ploughing was done by hand, there was no mechanical plough.

'This building housed the island's mill,

'where, along with regular hard labour,

'up to 100 men a day were clad in leg irons,

'forced to turn the metal gears of the impossibly heavy stone mill.'

I'm not really one for, you know, feeling spirits

and ghosts in a place, but this... this building I particularly dislike.

A recollection from a settler who visited here in 1844 describes

the shrieking and the cries from this place - even though

he's down by the water he can hear what's going on in here.

'From the evidence that remains

'of the Second Settlement's fearsome reputation,

'two accounts stand out for their vivid expression.

'One by a convict, the other from a reformist commandant.

'Transported to New South Wales for stealing a bale of rope,

'21-year-old Irish convict Laurence Frayne was sent to

'Norfolk Island in 1830 for stealing two muskets and some brandy.

'His cheeky mouth and irrepressible spirit immediately put him

'at odds with the hardline prison authorities,

'who consistently made an example of him.'

The application of flogging was very methodical.

It was done at a rhythmic pace, it was recorded in minute detail.

You can often read of, say, 100 lashes

being inflicted upon a prisoner, and that's quite easy to read

but almost impossible to imagine the pain that's being inflicted.

After seven or eight blows, then you'll be bleeding and if it's

100 lashes then they'll be flogging onto open skin after a while.

-So they were being flayed alive.

-Essentially, yes.

It's an extremely brutal punishment.

The official record shows that Laurence Frayne survived

a staggering 1,125 lashes on Norfolk Island.

But it's his own handwritten account that gives

a sense of his true suffering.

"I was put in a cell, chained down.

"I was under the necessity of making my water in my hand

"and put it upon my mutilated back to keep my shirt from the sore.

"I had no other bed but the cold, wet flags.

"No heart can conceive or can write or tongue can tell

"the poignant grief and the anguish

"I have suffered both mental and otherwise.

"These are trials which no heart can know of."

This is the only scourge, or cat-o'-nine-tails,

known to have survived from the times of the Second Settlement,

and it's a cruel-looking thing, with these knots in the cord

to make sure it does as much damage as possible.

And you're left to wonder just how many backs it laid open to the bone.

'Under the harsh prison authorities,

'Frayne would never have been allowed to write his own convict memoir,

'but in 1840 a new commandant, Alexander Maconochie, arrived,

'with a philosophy for a more humanitarian approach

'to the business of punishment.

'A reformer way ahead of his time,

'Maconochie introduced animal husbandry and vegetable gardens

'to give prisoners more autonomy.

'He instigated a library and provided pencils and paper

'to encourage prisoners to write.

'It's thanks to Maconochie

'that Laurence Frayne's vivid memoir survives to this day

'as the most defiant convict account of life in the Second Settlement.'

-Hello, Sharn.

-Hello, Neil.

'Sharn White is Laurence Frayne's great-great-great-grandniece.

'She's on Norfolk Island for the first time,

'seeking a tangible connection to her audacious ancestor.'

What sections within the manuscript jump out at you?

The whole thing is very poignant to me, but particularly

the parts where he's receiving... terrible, brutal treatment.

You know, you can't help, as a descendant,

to be quite moved by that and horrified by it.

How does it feel to be in the vicinity of where those...

acts took place?

It's...very moving. Erm...

Speaking out and his act of writing this document

was his way of saying that, "I'm still a human.

"Doesn't matter what you do to me,

"doesn't matter how you treat me, I'm still here and I still matter."

'One of Maconochie's great reforms was to allow convicts

'the dignity of burial with a proper headstone.

'In her research,

'Sharn discovered that Laurence Frayne carved the gravestone

'for convict friend William Storey, signing it with his own name.'

I think we're looking for a fairly substantial...

-There's Irishmen there.

-..headstone.

-County Tipperary.

'Sharn's here today to see if she can find

'this remnant of Laurence's legacy.'

I'm assuming it will have where he's from. Ah, look, there it is.

-William Storey, city of Dublin.

-William Storey.

I've wanted to see this for a long time.

"To the memory of William Storey, native of the city of Dublin,

"who departed this life January the 9th, 1838.

"This stone was erected by Laurence Frayne to commemorate his memory."

Do we know what happened to Frayne?

He was released under Maconochie,

and he was given a ticket of leave

for the Maitland area in the Hunter Valley, so, er...

He disappears in about 1848.

And I like to think he got away.

-Finally.

-Finally!

I'm quite glad that he didn't end up here.

That cemetery's a very moving place.

So many men, so many names were sent here

to be lost and forgotten in every conceivable way.

And yet among the few that are remembered are two names,

Laurence Frayne and Alexander Maconochie,

the one who refused to buckle and submit

and the other who recognised the right of a human being

to stand up and look out at the world with an unblinking gaze.

So now an indelible part of the story of Norfolk Island

is the name of a man who, although he was sent here to vanish,

is still demanding to be noticed and to count, defiant to the last -

Laurence Frayne.

In 1855, the grisly penal colony on Norfolk Island was shut down,

but it wasn't long before Laurence Frayne's rebellious legacy was emulated.

One year later a new group arrived, descendants of lawbreakers,

the ancestors of many living here today.

It's the remarkable tale of the famous mutineers

from Her Majesty's Ship the Bounty,

as Dr Alice Garner's about to discover.

In April 1789, while sailing home from Tahiti,

Captain William Bligh awoke to a rude shock.

His master's mate, Fletcher Christian, was taking him prisoner.

The Bounty crew had spent five months in Tahiti

and had fallen under the spell of the island, the local women

and their relaxed sexual mores.

When the ship set sail for England, Captain Bligh's tight rein

and intemperate rages soon had crew members longing to resume

their licentious sabbatical.

Led by first mate Fletcher Christian, half the crew mutinied,

casting Bligh and those loyal to him adrift in a longboat.

24 mutineers eventually returned to Tahiti.

Of them, nine lured a dozen local women and six men aboard

and in a legendary maritime journey

fled for the safety of tiny, isolated Pitcairn Island.

'Ken Christian is a descendant of head mutineer Fletcher Christian

'and his Tahitian wife, Mauatua.'

Ken, I'd love to hear about the history of your family

and know a bit about your connection to Fletcher Christian.

Yeah, well, I'm a seventh-generation descendant from Fletcher.

As this...chart here will show.

There I am.

I'm curious about the stories that you have heard

passed down through your family.

A lot of it was not talked about for a long time.

-Because I think a lot of people are a little bit embarrassed, to be perfectly frank.

-Mm.

I think it just comes from a sense of having probably

done the wrong thing by the mother country.

But I read that he was only 24 when he did it.

I thought, "My God," you know, "what a..." It's just amazing what he did.

I mean, it was a hanging offence, to mutiny.

And Fletcher Christian changed the course of maritime history,

because of the treatment that everybody had been receiving

at the hands of Captain Bligh.

On Pitcairn Island, wild and free,

the exiles gave birth to a community of descendants.

But violence begat violence and the original mutineers

and the Polynesian men eventually killed one another off.

Over the ensuing decades the mutineers' families

found solace in religion and reports of the Pitcairners' piety

trickled back to a fascinated England.

When their population grew too large for tiny Pitcairn,

they petitioned Queen Victoria for relocation.

Unexpectedly, the request was met with favour.

The mutiny, whilst not forgotten, was forgiven.

So Queen Victoria actually granted blocks of land on Norfolk Island

to all the Pitcairn people that came to Norfolk at that time.

And so in 1856, 67 years after the mutiny,

194 Pitcairners sailed the perilous 6,000 kilometres to their new home.

They landed on June 8th,

now celebrated annually as Bounty Day by the island community,

one third of whom are direct descendants of the mutineers.

Everyone turns out for a symbolic re-enactment

of the Pitcairners' landing.

-Thank you very much.

-Welcome. Welcome.

-Good voyage?

'Direct descendants of the original mutineers dress all in white

'and are given pride of place in the parade.'

Hi! I'm Alice.

'Chelsea Evans is one of these.'

This is a beautiful day.

Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's a very special day here on Norfolk.

-What does it mean to you personally?

-Erm, to me I guess it's...

You know, it's our national day.

It's a day that we celebrate all that we are, all that we've done

in the past and... a bit of hope for the future,

so Bounty Day is all about community and who we are as a people, I guess.

Tell me about the foremothers in your family.

Is it possible to find out as much about them

as it is about the men, because there's a lot of talk of the men?

Yeah, there is. It's, erm... My mother, erm,

she can actually go right back to the Tahitian foremothers.

She knows all of their names.

I think if we didn't have the Tahitian women there,

Pitcairn probably wouldn't have survived.

They knew so much

and they passed that on to all of the children there.

You can see it with our language,

with our traditional cooking, erm,

with our sense of humour, with the people that we have, you know.

It's very strong to us

and it's a powerful thing that we really hang on to so much.

-Ken.

-Oh!

-Hello!

-Hello, Alice, how are you?

-Good to see you again.

And you too. Welcome.

What do you think Fletcher Christian would make of this?

-I don't think he'd believe it.

-No!

-I don't think he'd believe it at all.

Probably think we're all traitors.

Coming away from that beautiful island of theirs.

'The past few decades have seen a passionate revival

'of the island's Polynesian heritage.

'It's great to see them embrace it and to be here with them

'to celebrate Bounty Day.'

# We got the palm tree, we got the pine

# We got wahines and very good wine

# We got everything Tahiti got

# We only no got the coconut

# Whoo! Whoo! Whoo... #

APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING

The Bounty descendants spoke their own unique language,

a blend of English and Tahitian now known as Norfuk.

As a young boy we used to go mainly at night.

You'd go out in the dark and have a torch and slip and slide.

It was like an adventure.

It's a real traditional thing. We love it.

That's our McDonald's!

I like picking them off the rocks. I don't like eating them.

I hate them. They're like black snot.

THEY SPEAK NORFUK

We're going to take them down to Ruth and Foxy.

They're elder people of Norfolk Island.

Just boil them up, get a pen and pick them out

and just get straight into them.

You can put them in white sauce

or you can put them into pastry and make a pie.

They're nice any of those ways.

Bolstered by the Bounty descendants,

the community on Norfolk Island grew.

But domestication saw the introduction of animals

like cats and rabbits taking a heavy toll on the island's birdlife.

Many species found nowhere else on earth are sadly now extinct.

Professor Tim Flannery has come to witness the race to save

one of Australia's most endangered birds.

The green parakeet was once found everywhere

but today it teeters on the brink of extinction.

-So, Abi, is it a parrot or a parakeet?

-Well, you can use either.

They're known locally as green parrots.

'Abi Smith is a faunal ecologist for Parks Australia on Norfolk Island.

'She heads the green parrot conservation project at Mt Pitt National Park.'

It was once quite common and widespread across Norfolk Island

and Phillip Island and its population has now reduced.

Recent surveys have shown that

there's only about 46 to 92 birds remaining

and there's a really big sex bias in the population

so, of that, we believe there's only around ten breeding females.

-Wow, so it's one of the world's rarest birds.

-Yeah, Tim, it is.

'Heading deeper into the forest, I'm acutely aware that this is

'a rare chance to see one of only ten active green parrot nests on earth.'

Can you hear the birds? That's the birds.

Wow, OK.

Fantastic.

-So the nest site's just up ahead here, Tim.

-Oh, wow, yes, yeah.

-Fantastic.

-We'll just be very quiet until we can see

-if the female's sitting on the nest.

-Sure.

I can hear Mum flying around.

I think it's safe to say Mum's not there.

We've put in these little inspection accesses into all of the nest sites.

'This combination of natural and artificial elements

'help make the nest predator-resistant.

'It's all about protecting the last remaining green parrots.'

In this nest site we've got two males and a female.

That's pretty standard what we see in the nest sites,

there's always more males than females.

This is so exciting,

because there's only ten of these nests on the whole planet.

This is such a privilege.

Oh, wow, my goodness. Look at them, they're quite well grown.

Yeah, these ones are not too far off fledging.

So, I'll just grab one out.

BIRD SQUAWKS

-OK.

-Oh, fantastic.

-What a beautiful little thing.

-So that's one of the males.

-Wow.

-Tim, I might get you to hold him while I put the door back on.

-Yeah, sure.

-Two fingers over each side of his head, like that.

-Right.

-Hold him firm but not tight.

-There he is. I'll get his legs.

-There he is.

-And we'll just put this back on for now.

I can't believe it, I'm holding one of the world's rarest birds.

-It's quite amazing, isn't it?

-It is.

You'll be all right, little fella.

We're not going to hurt you, don't worry.

-Now, we've got to do a measurement.

-We do.

So we just measure their wings,

make sure that they're all growing healthy.

A ruler like that. And then we measure their tail feathers.

-Oh, right.

-Which are growing really nice now.

'Regular measurements are especially important

'with precious females like this little one.'

-So that's our little female.

-Oh, fantastic.

So she's really important to the future of the species.

She's so important, yeah.

'That's because the males often bully their way to getting more food.'

-So she's just over 100 grams.

-Right.

So she's doing well

-but we could probably give her a little bit of a feed.

-OK.

Oh, look at that, she is drinking it.

Isn't that fantastic?

Here you go, sweetie, you just get a bit of that.

Isn't that great? She's a bit hungry, isn't she?

She's probably getting a bit underfed, do you think?

-Yeah, I think she...

-Her brothers are beating her to the food.

-Yeah.

There you go, sweetheart, you go back home.

It must be great for you, too.

You know, often with the environment it's hard to know you're making

a positive difference, but with this, you know, every bird you bring up is

really making a material difference to the future of the whole species.

-That's right.

-That's fantastic.

We've had 32 chicks fledge successfully from the nest

-in the last six months.

-So you've doubled the population virtually.

-Yeah, and we've doubled the female population as well, so...

-Wow.

That's brilliant.

A stone's throw from Norfolk Island, a distinctive red

and purple outcrop emerges from the sea.

This is Phillip Island, the "Uluru of the South Pacific".

And, despite its barren isolation,

it's set to play a key role in the green parrot conservation programme.

-It's sort of a leap of faith a bit.

-Yeah, no worries. Thanks, mate.

Phillip Island has no feral cat or rat predators, so the plan is to

relocate the green parrot here where they can breed in absolute safety.

But it's a great irony that Phillip Island's

suitability for conservation today is due to an historical

environmental disaster, one that was man-made.

Soon after Norfolk Island was settled in 1788,

this place here was conceived of as a living larder so that the

officers could enjoy a bit of fresh meat and some Sunday hunting.

The goats, pigs and rabbits that were released here soon proliferated

and they grazed a tropical paradise into a lunar landscape.

Without plants or trees to hold it, soil sloughed off into the sea

exposing the stark, red volcanic bedrock of a dying island.

But when the last rabbit was eliminated in the late 1980s,

a massive regeneration process began

to bring Phillip Island back to life.

This is regenerating well, isn't it?

Yeah, we're starting to enter the forest zone here

and the nest site is just down in here.

Ah! Very good. Right.

Even though predators aren't an issue,

the team is building artificial nests

similar to those on Norfolk Island

so that the green parrots can adapt as quickly as possible.

That's great!

So, 12 months from now, there might be baby parrots coming out of that.

We certainly hope so.

MANY baby parrots!

A heartening coda to this tale of invasive predation is that

Phillip Island is returning to its former glories.

With human help,

it's transforming from a living larder back to a safe haven.

And Norfolk Island's most precious bird,

the endangered green parakeet,

may yet find its last island out here.

For every grain of sand on every beach on earth,

there are thousands of stars in the universe.

Curiously, much of what we've learned about the cosmos

in the last 70 years stems from a discovery made

here on Norfolk Island near the end of the Second World War.

In May 1943, the New Zealand Air Force base

built a radar station on Mount Bates, Norfolk Island's tallest peak.

-Hello, Ron.

-Oh, hello, Emma!

'CSIRO Fellow Ron Ekers is an eminent astronomer

'who knows all about this radar station's place in history.'

So, what is this here?

Emma, this piece of junk is really very significant.

This is part of the radar that was built

in the Pacific Islands in the Second World War.

So, this is the base

and at the top there would have been a radar emitting radio waves?

Yes, yes.

It was a low frequency radar, 200 megahertz,

and there was an antenna on top of it emitting the radio waves.

It made a discovery which changed the way we understand the universe.

Can we have a look at where it was positioned?

Yes, let's go up on the hill behind us here and we can see the top.

'I'm keen to know more about this revolutionary discovery.'

This is where the radar station's antenna would have been mounted.

'But, first, I need to understand how this particular radar operated.'

So, what was unique about this position?

Well, in this position, look!

You can see the horizon for 360 degrees all the way around.

So, you would send a radio pulse out from the antenna

and if that bounces off anything - an aircraft or a ship -

you can time how long it takes for the pulse to come back

and so you can find the range.

So you can find the distance.

And by having the 360 degrees, they, of course,

could scan a huge area of the Pacific.

'In March 1945, the war was coming to an end.

'Flying officer Les Hepburn was manning the Norfolk Island radar

'when he noticed increased bursts of radio noise.'

'Isolated surges that occurred just after sunrise or just before sunset.

'On the radar oscilloscope, these strange pulses

'look like blades of grass.

'Having no idea what they were, Hepburn dubbed them

'the Norfolk Island Effect.'

What they were doing as part of the radar operations was

looking for the signals being reflected from any aircraft.

But what they discovered was every time the sun

was in the direction they were pointing, they saw additional noise,

"grass" they called it, on their oscilloscope.

Hepburn's mysterious readings were sent to a top-secret

radar research unit in New Zealand headed up by Dr Elizabeth Alexander.

When the Norfolk effect readings came in,

Dr Alexander coordinated a programme of tests

at various other radar stations, also at sunrise and sunset,

to see if they got the same result.

All of them did.

What they had actually seen was a storm on the surface

of the sun which had generated the extra radio emission.

This was the discovery of the fact that the sun is also

a source of radio noise.

'Ron has created a mini radar receiver

'to demonstrate the Norfolk Island Effect.'

OK, so it's quiet now.

Try pointing it at the sun.

ELECTRICAL HISSING

Oh! That's huge. It's like a forest.

They're radio signals coming from the sun

and that's exactly what the radar operators reported.

How the "grass" had filled the whole screen

when the sun came into the beam of the telescope.

So, in a sense, this was the birth of radio astronomy.

It was the birth of radio astronomy.

Radio astronomy is the science of observing the cosmos through

radio telescopes rather than optical telescopes.

The Norfolk Island Effect had recorded radio waves from

solar flares - intense, magnetic storms breaking through sunspots

on the sun's surface and omitting all kinds of radiation,

including radio waves.

This phenomenon was the key that opened the door to explorations

of the universe way beyond the range of optical telescopes.

So, we were suddenly able to hear the rest of the universe?

Yes, and these were some of the brightest things in the sky.

Bigger telescopes were built.

The CSIR went on and built the Parkes radio telescope

which then made many discoveries -

the discovery of what are called quasars,

and suddenly we were able to explore the whole cosmos using radio waves.

And it all started here on Norfolk Island.

The Norfolk Island Effect kick-started radio astronomy,

allowing us to see a thrillingly expanded universe -

one that includes supernovae, black holes, and faraway galaxies.

Notwithstanding Norfolk Island's contribution

as a window on the universe, those who live on this

tiny island have mostly preferred to keep themselves to themselves.

This is a 1970s brochure about Norfolk Island

from the tourist bureau and it says right on the front cover,

"The most boring place in the whole wide world."

Now, you know what that is, don't you?

That's what people say when they know that they live somewhere good.

It's a bluff.

In here, lots of stuff about the prettiness and things to see.

They talk about eating a lot of fish.

"But if it's night-time,

"it might be wise to avoid the one known as the dream fish.

"It is said to give LSD-type hallucinations during sleep.

"But then again, at least it's legal."

Dream fish. That's the one for me!

I've heard the two most seasoned fisherman on the island can

help me find this fish.

Their names - Puss and Pelly.

And, apparently, they're in the phone book.

Right, let's see if there's a phone book. Phone book!

Norfolk Island telephone directory.

How does this work?

Look! Look! "Find a person by their nickname."

Have you ever seen that before? Look at that! Brilliant.

Look at them! Nippa, Noon, Onion.

Petal. Ha! Pooh!

I wouldn't answer to that myself, but it takes all sorts.

Puss!

Right.

See if this works.

Hello. Puss? Is that Puss? Hi. Hi, it's Neil Oliver here.

Yeah, I'm looking to catch dream fish.

Before the war, boats on Norfolk Island were scarce

so dream fish became popular

because they were easy to catch from the rocks,

speared traditionally with a bamboo pole.

Fishing skills have always been vital to survival

and locals Puss and Pelly are keen to show off theirs

by catching a dream fish for me.

It's a blue!

Got a net?

Yeah, net here.

They are gorgeous fish.

You don't catch anything

that looks like that in Scotland, I can tell you!

It's easy fishing here, isn't it? They're everywhere.

It's a blue one.

'As awesome as these bluefish are, they're not why we are here.

'I'm keen for my first look at a dream fish...

'..considered a delicacy by older islanders...

'if they're brave enough to eat it.'

So what does a dream fish look like?

-Brown. It's brown.

-Big? Small?

Oh, you can get it from about that size, but we call that a dot.

It's a small dream fish.

That won't make you dream, it's only a small one.

The bigger ones, you can get them with light grey spots on them.

And, if we get one, will you eat it as well?

No.

-As simple as that?

-As simple as that.

My mind is made up.

Yeah, you're no advert for dream fish, I tell you now!

No, no, but I love it. It's nice.

Yeah, but it comes at a price.

It paralyses me.

I've had dream fish for dinner, go to bed and within half an hour,

I can't move. I get scared...

there's somebody in the room with me,

I want to push them away,

I can't lift my hand, I break into a cold sweat...

-Are you aware, though, that it's a dream?

-Yes.

-You know it's happening?

-I know it's happening. But I can't move.

-This sounds rubbish.

I tell you what, I hope we catch a big one to let you have a go at it.

Right.

-I'm not so sure about this now.

-There! Keep it!

When they said it was a dream fish,

I was thinking maybe good dreams, but they say it's only bad dreams.

-Catch one of those, go on!

-Oh!

So this seems a bit eccentric really.

Fishing for nightmares. It's asking for trouble, literally.

-Why didn't you catch one of those? There's...

-Don't ask me, ask the fish!

There's plenty there.

-You got it? That's a dream fish?

-Yeah.

Ah, the white whale! Here we go!

Oh, yeah. Look at that! There's the dream fish. Look at that.

That will send you on a mission.

-You reckon?

-I bloody guarantee it!

LAUGHTER

You'll come back looking for more.

Aye! Any time now we'll all be dancing!

Job done!

'Hallucinogenic fish inebriation is a known phenomenon.

'The powerful vision is probably caused

'by naturally occurring hallucinogens

'passed into the fish's flesh from seaweed in their diet.'

That'll make your hair curly!

I'm looking forward to it.

You see, I'm interested in this because I never dream.

I just don't dream.

-You just don't dream?

-No. I go to sleep. I wake up.

There's nothing happens in between. So, if this makes me dream...

..I'll be impressed.

While they've been eating dream fish here for 150 years,

I've heard it's an acquired taste.

Just a little bit of cream poured over the top and just left to simmer.

Just smell it.

-It's like mackerel. It's...

-It's beautiful.

OK. Dream fish, eh?

I'll be the judge of that.

I suppose nowadays there's not a lot of people eating this,

certainly not outsiders, but, you know, you live once.

Oh, it's strong!

-Yum!

-It's nice.

I would never know there's anything suspicious about this.

-It seems like a perfectly decent fish dish.

-Well, it is.

I could get to like that.

And happy dreaming!

Well, there you go.

I've had my dose of dream fish.

I'm going to try and go to sleep now.

I remain sceptical, but we will see what happens.

So, good night!

Oh, God!

Eugh!

Oh, that was awful.

The room was dark but there was light...pale light.

I could see the shapes of figures.

And I didn't like that so much.

I opened my mouth to speak...

..but I just made a kind of a breath

and a big face rushed towards me.

And I woke up. That's when I woke up.

I might read for a while.

I don't like that at all.

I think I'll read a book.

When Governor Phillips sent Lieutenant King to establish

the first settlement on Norfolk Island in 1788

he instructed him to find "the best anchorage according to the season".

History records that King found no safe anchorage

and none has been discovered since.

Brendan Moar has come to explore how this isolated community

manages to cope.

The steep cliffs that surround Norfolk Island means there is

no harbour for any-sized boat to land safely or to drop anchor

making it seemingly impossible to ship in supplies.

But there is one seafaring skill that defies the geographical

challenges of this place.

Oh!

It's been passed on from father to son for generations.

In the Norfolk language it's called "work and ship".

In English, "working the ship".

Fraught with danger, it's a tradition

going back as far as the Bounty mutineers.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 'The unloading of the Southern Tiare is due to commence

'at the Cascade Pier this morning at 7.30.'

Without a natural harbour, cargo ships first anchor,

a kilometre offshore, always at the mercy of the tides.

So, when conditions allow, these 40 or so men have to drop everything and

undertake the risky task of unloading the island's supplies.

Basically, this is all about getting what's out there to here.

You have to remember that Norfolk Island is more than just

a collection of beautiful old buildings.

It's hundreds of homes, shops, resorts, buses, cars, the lot...

Every little bit of every little thing has come by these boats.

My, these boys have been busy!

Just getting to the cargo ship is cumbersome and time-consuming.

One at a time, teams clamber into wooden boats, or lighters,

which are lowered by crane and then towed out by launch.

For Norfolk,

arrival of supplies like this is a matter for the island's survival.

With heavy cargoes swinging overhead,

working a lighter is the most dangerous job.

Crew need to be ready to jump into the water in a flash

or risk serious injury.

27-year-old Caine Henderson has been working ships since he was 14.

What can go wrong about here?

A lot of things.

Unstable pallet, you can get a swell alongside it and, erm...

one will fall and then the rest will fall,

then you start taking on water...

so there's been days out here where the boat has sunk.

-These have sunk?

-Yep.

One of today's challenges is getting this 2,000 kilogram

sedan into this tiny lighter.

A little bit hairy, right?

Ooh!

By that much.

Nice work!

Each lighter can carry a gobsmacking nine-tonne load.

A very good thing, because every sizeable object

on Norfolk Island has arrived in one of these.

Is it addictive?

I think it is. I enjoy the rush.

The bigger the better for me.

Something more dangerous.

-Right.

-A bit of swell, a bit of challenge.

'It really is a risky business.

'The unpredictable swell makes unloading at the island...

'..equally hairy.'

Approaching the pier is a dance of timing between launch driver,

lighter and swell.

Once honed, the men's skills look and become automatic,

but this belies their deep knowledge of the ocean and what you could

call a kind of intergenerational memory of knowing the sea.

This is classy!

Righto! See you, fellas!

Thanks, man!

That's good. That is the way to fly!

'Life here depends on one's ability to adapt

'and outwit the volatile nature of the sea.'

This sentinel, the lone pine, has stood here for 650 years,

keeping watch - a silent witness to all that's been

and to whatever is to come.

The destinies of those who call this far-flung isle home

have long been shaped by its notorious history -

a pertinent reminder of nature's power

and the transience of human endeavour.

The Norfolk pines were a great incentive for European settlement,

but they were useless for masts, which was good news for this giant.

In the end, though, there's a very valuable lesson

to be learnt from the tree like this one -

that it takes time and perseverance to put down roots.

'Next time, we're in southern New South Wales where

'Dr Alice Garner visits a yacht race with life and death stakes...

160-kilometre-hour winds with gusts to 200 kilometres an hour.

'..Professor Tim Flannery explores a wartime mystery linking

'Australia to a lost British treasure...

Who actually is the owner of the ingot?

I'm not prepared to go into that, Tim.

'..and I meet a killer whale that helped men hunt other whales.'

A seven metre long killing machine accustomed to

consuming 50 kilos of meat a day.